Holes In Budget Let Parolees Slip Through

September 26, 1987|By Jean Davidson.

Parolees charged with new crimes are routinely being released on bail because the issuance of parole warrants-the legal hold that keeps erring ex-convicts in jail to await trial-has come to a virtual halt since the layoff of two-thirds of the state`s parole agents last month.

The unraveling of the parole safety net also is evident in the downgrading of reporting requirements, with those parolees considered most likely to stray-roughly 85 percent-now ordered to meet with their parole officers monthly instead of weekly.

Since the layoffs, the department has issued only 30 parole warrants statewide, compared with about 500 in a typical month previously, according to Tony Scillia, deputy corrections director in charge of parole.

The system began to disintegrate in August, after agents were notified of their imminent dismissals; just 164 warrants were issued statewide in that month. With individual caseloads of up to 400 parolees, it has become impossible for the remaining agents to process warrants and check up on clients, Scillia said.

``We were bare-bones prior to the cuts, and now supervision is basically nonexistent,`` he said. ``We`re not giving up, but the network of information is breaking down and some cases are falling through the cracks.``

The result, according to Judge Richard Fitzgerald, chief of the Cook County Criminal Court, is potentially explosive.

``If there is no parole hold, the court will automatically set bail,`` he said. ``It means more people running around on the street who should be in jail.``

An example is Orlando Cintron, 27, a convicted drug dealer and parolee who was charged with the gang-related murder of Juan Santos on Aug. 17. Prosecutors requested a parole warrant hours after Cintron`s arrest, but none was issued in time for his bond hearing.

Judge Michael Bolan set bond at $150,000, and Cintron posted the required 10 percent on the spot. A parole warrant was lodged by corrections officials later that day, but Cintron had already been freed.

Cintron slipped through the net a second time on Thursday, when he appeared before Fitzgerald to plead innocent to the murder charges. No parole agent attended the hearing, and prosecutors said they were unaware of the belated warrant. Cintron was freed again.

``This is a shock to me,`` Scillia said when informed of Cintron`s second release. ``The warrant is listed in the statewide police computer system, which the state`s attorney could easily check. Why he wasn`t taken into custody, I can`t tell you.``

Scillia said the initial delay in filing a warrant for Cintron was probably a result of confusion and plummeting morale in the days before the layoffs took effect.

Tyrone Garron, 29, who has been convicted of theft, burglary and weapons charges eight times in the last decade, is another example. After he was paroled on Sept. 4, Garron rented a room in a transient hotel near Belmont and Sheffield Avenues. Nine days later he was charged with rape. He was accused of assaulting a woman for 2 1/2 hours in her apartment nearby.

Though a parole agent in the South Side office that handled Garron`s case said he was considered a high-risk repeat offender and that under normal circumstances a parole warrant would have been issued to block his release, no warrant was issued until Thursday, three days after the first newspaper inquiries about his case. Bond was set at $100,000, and all that held Garron in Cook County Jail in the interim was his inability to come up with $10,000. ``In both of those cases, there should have been a parole warrant,``

corrections director Lane said. ``The loss of these parole agents has, as we predicted, had a serious impact on public safety.``

Lane blamed the layoffs on the General Assembly`s refusal to pass the $1.6 billion tax increase requested by Gov. James Thompson. Thompson trimmed $363 million to balance the state budget, leaving the corrections department with $413 million-$17 million short of what Lane termed ``barely adequate.``

Even if the money is restored, Lane said his first priority will be more beds for the state`s burgeoning prison population.